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West Virginia Homeland Security Officer Critically Shot at Home Near Charleston
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The training coordinator for the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security was shot in the chest and was in critical condition as of late Monday, the West Virginia Gazette reports. Frank Kennedy was found at his home near Charleston where he apparently shot himself intentionally. Kennedy underwent surgery Sunday night and remained…
Border Patrol Agents Continue to Work With Less Pay
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Border Patrol agents will begin receiving smaller paychecks because of the government shutdown, the Monitor reports. “It’s going to have a severe negative impact because people still have to pay bills,” said Agent Paul Perez, president of National Border Patrol Council Local 3307, the sector union. “Unless their creditors are willing to…
FBI Increases Number of Digital Billboards Along Highways Nationwide
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI’s digital billboard program started as a one-city pilot in Philadelphia in 2007 and exploded into 3,200 locations nationwide today, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. The increase is due to the program’s success, the FBI said. “We reach a wider audience,” said FBI Special Agent Barbara Woodruff, a spokeswoman for the Newark…
Secret Service investigates Increasing Number of Credit Card “Skimming” Cases
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com When you hand over your credit card, be careful what happens to it. The Secret Service is reporting an increasing number of cases of credit card “skimming,” or thieves copying information on the card, the South Jersey Times reports. The information, such as the name, card number and expiration date, often is…
Feds Bust Underage Sex Slave Operation in Houston Area
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A federal investigation has broken up an alleged sex slave operation involving girls as young as 14 and 15 years old in the Houston area, ABC 13 reports. Several people are in custody after agents raided Houston bars that doubled as brothels Thursday, according to feds. An indictment recently obtained by ABC…
Book: Johnny Carson Helped FBI Arrest Man Who Made Threats with a Grenade
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com We knew Johnny Carson was a comedian? But a brazen cowboy? In the mid-1970s, Carson found a live grenade with a threat demanding $250,000 in cash. If he didn’t deliver it, a note read, his family would be harmed, Showbizz 44 reports. So with the help of the FBI, Carson, who carried…
Issa and Grassley Concerned About ATF Blocking Book by Whistleblower on “Fast and Furious”
By TAL KOPAN Politico WASHINGTON — Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Thursday demanding more information about the agency’s decision to prohibit the agent who blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious from publishing his book. The House Oversight and…
Friend of Ex-Detroit Mayor Gets 21 Years
By Allan Lengel Deadline Detroit DETROIT — Painting him as a bully, extortionist and violent criminal who hid assets, a Detroit federal judge on Friday sentenced Bobby Ferguson, the city contractor and good buddy of ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, to 21 years. “Bobby Ferguson was the catalyst at the center of an historic and unprecedented…